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British Women in the War 



BY 



HAMILTON BELL 



G. ARNOLD SHAW 

GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL 
KEW YORK 

Date of issue, November 1^, 1917 



"Never forget that you are doing National Service, and set your- 
self a very high standard of work. Never be satisfied with second best. 
Do not be discontented if you are found fault with or put to work 
that you do not like. Think of the men in the trenches and on the sea, 
and of what they have to do. They do not disobey their officers or 
shirk their duty. Your employer is your officer and you must obey 
him. And you, unlike your brothers, can always appeal against any 
thing that seems hard or unfair. You have been given exceptional 
opportunities of making a career for yourself, and at the same time, 
doing your duty by the country v/hich has reared and protected you. 
Make the most of your chance and be worthy of the trust that has 
been placed in you." 



British Government's advice to applicants for service in 
The Woman's Land Army. 



-'t ' ' 






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. /^ V^ 



British Women in the War 



How far we are removed from the days when Kingsley sang 
"For men must work, while women must weep" 
even a superficial glance, such as this must needs be, at what women 
are doing in Great Britain today, will show. 

Not only do they not weep, but even the mothers who, having 
given husband and sons to their country, can do no more than remain 
at home, caring for those who are either too old or too young to 
work or fight, carry off the privations and sacrifices which all have to 
make in this most sacred of all causes with a gallant smile. "Are we 
downhearted? No!" is their battle cry, too, and they "carry on" as 
bravely as any warrior of them all. 

"Carry on !" is the password. The soldier writes home to his wife 
"Carry on!" The wife writes back "Carry on!" Out of all Britain, 
out of the Dominions and Colonies, men must die in their thousands. 
They know it, their women know it, but out of the depths of their 
soul they cry "Carry on !" It is their answer to hymns of hate. It says 
nothing against the enemy, nothing even of England ; it's the hymn 
of the individual, it expresses all the impenetrable egoism — all the 
inextinguishable humour — all the personal elevation above sacrifice, 
pain and loss — all the utter mystical reliance on sheer character, that 
supreme eidolon of the English, to smash the infamous thing — that 
Britain has bred in her children. 

But it is not of those that are left behind, that I would speak. 
Stories of their pluck and good cheer are innumerable. One cannot 
open a newspaper without finding them, one cannot pick and choose, 
none are better than others, and all breathe the indomitable spirit 
which makes success. 

The mother who has given and lost her five sons, and whose only 
regret is that she has none left to send, the widow whose husband has 
fallen, and who drives back her tears to bend smilingly over his 
wounded comrades as they lie in hospital. We have all known such ; 
their names are in our hearts, close behind our lips. 

But again, it is not of these I would speak ; rather of those others 
whose work is directly due to and conditioned by the war. Besides 
weeping, there is another task that one instinctively looks to the women 
to perform in such terrible, trying times — nursing. The most patient 
enquiries have failed to disclose the numbers of devoted women who 

3 



have submitted to the arduous training of this noble profession, beyond 
that they are many thousands. At the outbreak of the war, besides 
the trained MiHtary Nurses, there were the Territorial Nurses some 
3000 strong, 60,000 of the British Red Cross and St. John of Jerusalem, 
and over 100,000 V. A. Ds. These have been multiplied, who shall 
say how many times in the last three years. The painful, nerve-and 
body-racking labour of the hospital nurse is such, that it is wonderful 
that even, in peace, so many can be found to discharge it, and in war 
all the horror of it is multiplied a thousand-fold. Added to the nurses 
are thousands of V. A. Ds., Voluntary Aid Detachment, women of all 
ranks, who lacking the special training, have volunteered for the most 
menial tasks in and about the hospitals. It has been well said of them 
that no job is too large for them to undertake, no gap too large for them 
to fill. It required not only courage, but physical strength when, 
during the Roumanian retreat, the women V. A. Ds. patched up a 
bridge under fire and brought across it over one hundred ambulances 
laden with helpless men. Some hundreds of these good women have 
given their lives in this cause ; wrecked by the strain, killed by the 
enemy, under fire at the front, or deliberately in hospitals or hospital 
ships, singled out with devilish inhumanity for attack by bombs or 
torpedoes. Chiefest among this noble army of martyrs shines the 
never-to-be forgotten name of Edith Cavell. 

Innumerable thousands of women are working voluntarily, for 
their country in ways that attract no especial attention and will prob- 
ably never be recognized, simply because they feel it to be their duty. 
They have risen to the occasion like heroines and have made them- 
selves indispensable. As no duty is too great, no task too arduous for 
the woman-worker, so no sacrifice is too hard for these others. 

It will probably never be known how many homes have been 
opened to the needs of the men who are fighting and dying to protect 
the homes of England. The stray and strange soldier need never seek 
in vain for a place to lay his head, in the land for which he is giving 
his blood. Thousands of private motors, driven by girls, scour the 
streets of London nightly after their sisters, the buswomen, have gone 
to bed, retrieving those soldiers who may have fallen by the wayside, 
meeting the troop trains and taking the lonely colonial or provincial 
soldier, who might otherwise fall into bad hands, to a Y. M. C. A. 
hostel, or to one of the numerous private houses which have been de- 
voted for their use. 

Not in London alone, but all over the country such houses are 
open to them, well, sick, or convalescent. Most of the finest of "the 
stately homes of England" are acquiring new glory in the hearts of 
her people through the gratitude of those they are sheltering in this 

4 



war time. As hospitals and convalescent homes they arc doing splen- 
did work. Nor do their chatelaines turn them over, move to another, 
not less luxurious, and settle down complacently, llattering themselves 
that they have done their "bit." They take oft" their coats and roll up 
their sleeves and work for their wards; nursing, tending, reading, 
cooking, from morning to night. Providing often most, if not all, of 
the funds to administer their benefactions, the noblest born and most 
carefully reared of Britain's daughters minister, literally, like angels 
to their men without distinction of rank. To be in khaki is an uni- 
versal passport, and to be wounded opens a veritable heaven to the 
sick and weary man. Theatres are taken by these ladies for the en- 
tertainment of those soldiers who are able to enjoy them. 

Thousands of others serve in the canteens and Y. M. C. A. centres, 
of which last there are over fifty in London alone, over one thousand 
in Great Britain, and one hundred and fifty on the Western front, 
as clerks, cooks, waitresses, chambermaids and entertainers. Between 
five and six thousand men slept in these in one week in London. An 
American observer recently stated that he had "seen on many occa- 
sions a carriage bearing the crest of some noble family, and attended 
by liveried, though elderly, servants bring a mother and her daughters 
to the door of such a place, where they donned the cap and apron of 
a waitress to serve the needs of the brave fellows who gathered there, 
working side by side with their sisters from every other walk of life." 

Thousands more spend their days, often far into the night, making 
comforts and necessaries for their protectors. No reckoning has been 
made of the hundreds of war relief workshops "manned" entirely by 
women of all classes, where, as in the Surgical Requisites Associa- 
tion's w^orkshops, wonderful surgical appliances are admirably made of 
inexpensive materials and given to those who need them through the 
medium of the hospitals. Not only the work, but the funds to provide 
the food, materials, supplies of all sorts are lavishly given by these 
voluntary helpers. Nor is the home army, of those who provide the 
munitions or supplies for that in the field, neglected. All the factories 
of all these imperative necessities run day and night, week in and week 
out, throughout the year, and at whatever hour the shifts change, or a 
brief rest is permitted, the tired workers find good hot food and drink 
served to them by cheerful women, who work like them in shifts, that 
they may return refreshed to their indispensable labours. The Young 
Women's Christian Association, for instance, provides meals for fac- 
tory workers at the rate of about 80,000 a week. For them, too, 
decent and comfortable housing is provided by their more prosperous 
sisters. 

But there is no end to their saintly activities. Think of any un- 

5 



likely, impossible good deed that might be done by human hands, and 
you will find not one, but scores of noble English women doing it. 

"Punch" as usual summed up the situation in his inimitable way 
by representing a little cockney girl bossing a member of the aristoc- 
racy with "Nar then Lady Halexandra 'urry up with the washin' of 
them plaites." 

A recent Board of Trade report shows that there are now 4,538,000 
women and girls employed in classified trades under its jurisdiction. 
This does not include women employed in small work-shops, nor on 
the land; and of course not domestic servants. Neither does it count 
in the noble army of Naval, Military, Red Cross and other nurses and 
hospital helpers. 

It is certain that the total number of British women workers in 
the war is considerably over five millions. 

In 1914, before the war, there were fewer than 200,000 women 
workers (mostly in textile factories) in Great Britain. There are now, 
191 7, 198,000 in government offices, exclusive of civil service and local 
government v/hich employ 146,000 more; over 800,000 making muni- 
tions alone ; over 200,000 in engineering and chemical works and other 
branches of metal trades ; over 100,000 employed on the land ; besides 
thousands of others at v/ork as mechanics, drivers of motors, ambu- 
lances, street cars and omnibuses, cabs, in every kind of work on the 
railways, as letter carriers, and as clerks in banks and offices of every 
description. Their numbers have not been reckoned, perhaps never 
will be, and the end is not yet. The call comes, and they respond to 
the tune of 15,000 a week, old as well as young; as was said of them 
by the superintendent of one of the largest munition factories, "they're 
saving the country. They don't mind what they do. Hours? They 
work ten and a half, or with overtime, twelve hours a day, seven days 
a week. The Government insists on two, or at least one, Sunday off 
a month. But the women resent it. 'We're not tired' they say. And 
look at them — they're not tired. I call for a bit of extra work — they 
stay and get it done, and pour out of the works singing and laughing. 
In one factory near here, for nearly a year the women have never had 
a holiday. They won't take one. 'What will our men at the front 
do, if we go holiday-making?' " 

At first men were provided to lift the heavy shell in and out of the 
machines, but the women thrust them aside in five minutes. And these 
women are from all classes. Girls who never before lifted a finger, even 
to help themselves, work side by side with the maids who formerly 
dressed them and tied their shoes, and with women from the fields 
and the factories, all quite happily, and without friction, "on their 
honour." They may not be as strong as the men, but what they lack 

6 



in strength, they make uj) in s])irit; and in the more delicate and 
accurate tasks, and those requiring- concentrated api)lication, they have 
proved superior to men. 

Under the training of the skilled v\-orkmen, who, too, have sunk 
all trade-union jealousies in their country's service, they learn, not 
merely the simpler and lighter, but the heaviest and most complicated 
of the processes whereby munitions of war are made, tasks that would 
seem impossible for women. Nor do they flinch from danger. Veiled 
and gloved, with bandages over mouth and nose, for their own protec- 
tion, the steadiest and most careful of them work in the "danger build- 
ings" for ten and a half hours at a time, handling high explosives, 
making and inserting in the shells the detonating fuses, where a slip 
may result in their own death, and that of who knows, how many of 
their comrades. In these deadly operations women mostly are em- 
ployed, and there is great competition among them for the jobs. 

Some have doubtless a personal motive, have a son or husband 
or lover at the front, some have lost that dear one, but the majority 
are working for their Motherland and for the greater cause of 
humanity. 

Since the munition factories are the avowed objectives of the 
enemy's air raids, every w^orker in them knowingly enters them, es- 
pecially on night shift, at the risk of life. 

Dr. Addison, Minister of Munitions, was able to announce to the 
House of Commons on June 24th, 1917, that "60 to 80 per cent, of the 
machine work on shells, fuses and trench-warfare supplies is now 
performed by women. They have been trained in aeroplane manu- 
facture, gun work, and in almost every other branch of manufacture." 
He informed the House also of the financial recognition this devotion 
was receiving; the average rate of wages of women on time rate, 
working 48 hours per week, had been more than doubled since the 
beginning of the war, and the minimum wage almost equalled that 
average. 

They are not only working in the factories, they help build them, 
doing the heaviest sort of laborer's Avork, excavating, bricklaying and 
carpentering. They stick at nothing, these gallant women. 

So it is with the women and girls who have come forward to 
answer the demand for labour on the land. Much fun has been poked 
at "the farmerette," but credit of a very high degree must be given 
to the delicately nurtured girl who voluntarily rises before sunrise, 
and works until after sunset at laborious and distasteful tasks ; cleaning 
pigsties, perhaps, or handling that "fearful wildfowl" the horse, about 
v/hich she only knows that "one end bites and the other kicks, and she 
is equally afraid of both," or bending painfully over the plough stilts. 

7 



She, too, is doing her'.bit, all honour to her.* Then again, take the 
women who stand hour after hour, for long hours, taking fares on 
trams and buses, wet through often ; or run the lifts which serve the 
underground trains in the London subways ; or handle the heaviest 
freight and passenger luggage, and laugh merrily at a man who chival- 
rously objects; and open and shut railway carriage doors — no light 
task on an English train rapidly moving out of a station. All the 
government mail carriers and drivers are women. And all so bravely 
and cheerfully. A girl working a London Underground Railway Lift, 
asked by a soldier "How many hours do they make you work?" 
refusing to be patronized, retorted gaily, "How many hours do they 
make you work in the trenches?" The soldier waited until she had 
opened the gate, passed out towards his train, and then, turning back, 
shouted, "But ours is pleasure." The girl looked after him beaming, 
slammed her gate shut, and as she started up again chuckled, "That's 
a good one," That's the spirit that is invincible. It has been well 
said of them, "The women of England go about their warring chuck- 
ling, as the men do, and would thank no one to point out that the 
chuckle drowns out the sob." It is the Happiness of Dedication. 

The Waacs is the latest development of feminine energy in 
England ; the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps has been so christened 
on the model of the Anzacs. 

Their job is to do anything and everything behind the lines that 
men can do, just as in the factories and offices, in the fields and stables, 
on the trains, buses, cabs, and elsewhere they have been doing men's 
work at home and with no more fuss than there. 

The Waacs serve as mechanics, motor-drivers, cooks, waitresses, 
stenographers, telephone operators, packers, milkers, haymakers, 
truck-gardeners and stable-women. 

They wear a sensible uniform of khaki tunic and trews, with high 
boots and a slouch hat, and live in barracks under rigid army discipline 
just as the men do. Their presence releases thousands of men for actual 
fighting, for this, unlike the tragic Russian "Legion of Death" they do 
not propose to undertake — as yet. But who knows, the need for even 
that may come, and then, it is safe to say, it will be as cheerfully and 
unpretentiously undertaken by these splendid British women. Indeed, 
a "munition girl" is reported to have said, recentl}^, "I see where the 
Russian women have shown up the men and are going out to fight. 
We'll do it, too, if we have to." 

*The President of the Board of Agriculture recently said: "It it were not 
for the women agriculture would be at an absolute standstill on many farms 
in England and Wales today." 

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